1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184 
No room for ivory towers
Page 22
Page 23
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Jennifer Ball tal(s to Tom Bell, MD for TNT Express Services UK and Ireland, about the business that's often in the news.
Despite running a business of TNT's size, MD Tom Bell comes across as the sort of boss whose door you could knock on for a cup of tea and a chat, In fact an open-door policy is something he prides himself on, arguing that just because he's in charge of a company with a turnover in excess of £650m which employs more than 10,000 people doesn't mean he should hide away in his ivory tower.
That clear idea of what's going on at ground level is reflected by the obvious concern he has for a driver who faced an attempted hijack at Ellesmere Port just hours before our interview.
Timber farming
Bell clearly remembers his 31-year journey from long-distance truck driver delivering to Commercial Motor's home town of Sutton to his desk inTNT's Atherstone HQ. He operates what he calls a "home-grown timber" policy within the company, offering other people the same opportunities that he grasped so readily.
This includes trying to address the driver shortage internally through TNT's Trailblazer scheme, which enables ambitious warehouse staff to gain the necessary qualifications and experience to become truck drivers, and helps existing drivers to upgrade their licences.
To illustrate this he points to the success of operations director Nigel Barton, who started as one of the firm's courier drivers, and Stuart Stobie, who he has seen develop from 19-yearold salesman to MD of TNT International UK at the tender age of 36.
"I met Stuart 15 years ago at the Stanmore depot and knew there was something different about him," Bell recalls. "I told him the world was his oyster and I encouraged him to become a general manager at Maidstone before he spent some time working for us in South Africa.
"He's been tremendously successful and now takes control of one of the biggest divisions at TNT. This is one of the things I enjoy most about the job: being able to give people the opportunity to develop their talents and seeing them mature. I believe it's important to reward people for using their initiative as it empowers them to do the same thing again."
Bell also believes the government should be doing more to encourage young people into the haulage industry he reckons scrapping the Road Transport Industry Training Board was a huge mistake: "Operators paid a levy on their wage bill which they got back if they carried out a required amount of driver training.
-Furthermore if they exceeded this they got a rebate, which obviously encouraged companies to carry out more training. Rather than handing out the Jobseekers allowance the government could pay to train people to be lorry drivers."
Market consolidation
During his 27 years at TNT Bell has seen other firms fall by the wayside as part of a general consolidation in the sector. He remarks that TNT now has only two main competitors DHL and UPS and predicts a further shrinking in the marketplace. But TNT has no plans to snap up its smaller rivals: "What's the point? None of them can offer us different services; they have depots in the same places that we have. We distinguish ourselves by offering our customers more than the simple postal service; we can go in and run their mail room and archive and file the computer systems and so on," he says.
Bell is forthright about the price of fuel and the level of tax on it. He has no problem with paying rising fuel prices he just raises the cost of transport but adds: "We are paying too much tax, and while we'd like to see the rate set in line with the rest of Europe we have to accept that high fuel prices are here to stay and reflect this in the rates that we charge.
"You cannot bear the increase without passing it on -anyone who does has their head in the sand," he asserts.
Bell seems undetened by a possible increase in congestion charging across the UK, but he would like to see a standardised system across the UK: "Although one thing that the government could do is remove vehicle tax and tolls and put the cost on petrol. This way people will only pay for the miles that they travel."
Wooden spoons
Despite the hectic day job he devotes a huge amount of his spare time to The Wooden Spoon Society, a charity which funds projects for children and young people who are physically, mentally or socially disadvantaged. Since 1997 TNT has been the programme's main benefactor, raising over Lim from anything from football tournaments to running the London Marathon. TNT runs a 'Seeing is Believing' programme enabling staff to meet children who have directly benefited from their fundraising efforts.
-The Wooden Spoon offers wonderful opportunities for drivers out on the road, office staff and those working on night shifts to organise events and meet each other," he says. "It's important that the staff can go out and see how a piece of kit which they have helped fund has changed the life of a child who was helpless but, 18 months down the line thanks to their help. can now sit up.It's a win-win situation." •